Sara Scalia Has Career Night, Makes 8 Threes in Indiana's 84-35 Win Over Bowling Green
BLOOMINGTON, Ind — No. 16 Indiana women’s basketball trounced Bowling Green 84-35 in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall Friday night, the program’s 17th straight nonconference home win, to improve to 10-1 on the year. Sara Scalia commanded the court — draining eight three-pointers for 32 total points — both single-game bests in an Indiana uniform for the senior transfer over the past two years.
For the first time since 2018, Indiana had a player score 30 points or more in back-to-back games.
“I just saw my first couple go down, and obviously my teammates were looking for me when I was open,” Scalia said after the game, when asked about perhaps showing more emotion on threes than usual. “It’s a good feeling when you’re hot like that, so I was trying to have fun with it.”
Scalia was five points and an additional three-pointer away from matching both career-highs during her time at Minnesota. On Friday night, the veteran made more shots beyond the arc than she had in the past three games combined. Indiana went 14-for-25 — or 56% — from distance. Scalia had eight, Chloe Moore-McNeil posted three, and three others sank one.
Indiana’s 14 triples is second all-time in program history, and the most since the Hoosiers made 16 in 2014. Scalia’s eight threes tied her for second all-time on the Indiana single-game records, and it was the most by any Hoosier since 1993. Plenty have made seven threes, and even Scalia did so three seasons ago playing for Minnesota at Assembly Hall.
“It's so much fun,” Moore-McNeil said post-game about Scalia. ”It's something that not every team has and when she does show a little emotion it does get us hyped as her teammates.”
Indiana began Friday’s game shooting 2-for-10 from the floor, and Scalia was 1-for-4 in that span. Still, the Hoosiers made all five of their shots afterward — including Scalia’s jumper — to close the first quarter up 20-6. In the opening three minutes of the second quarter, Scalia made three straight three-pointers and had more points than Bowling Green did in the first 13 minutes.
With four minutes to play in the third quarter, Scalia curled around the ball-screen set in the high-post — right into her ridiculous step-back three-pointer — for the sharpshooter’s fifth of the night. That shot matched her season-high number of threes made, which was previously set against Princeton in Florida back in November. Scalia had 28 points that game, her prior Indiana best.
Much like that Princeton game, Scalia played great defensively. What impressed in November was Scalia holding the Ivy League Rookie of the Year to just 11 points, while she dropped 28 herself. On Friday night, Scalia had three steals, and so did Moore-McNeil, who led with five assists. Thirty-five points is the second-lowest Indiana has given up this year. But granted, Bowling Green leading scorer Lexi Fleming left within minutes of Friday’s game due to injury.
“Sara Scalia was super, she was special,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said. “Yes, she scored the ball great, but I thought she was really good defensively. So as well as she shot it from beyond the arc, I thought she was as good defensively with how she was focused and determined, and did a great job. I thought for us tonight, really proud of the way we guarded.”
Indiana will get back into Big Ten play on New Year’s Eve when hosting Illinois.
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